Japan pledges USD 40 million for NE road development

by Anjana Samarasinghe

Japan, the largest bilateral donor pledged to provide USD 40 million for road development in Northeast areas. This was made known at a press conference, which was held at the Finance Ministry last week.

The Japanese Government has already provided nearly USD 180 million for the rehabilitation needs of Tsunami affected areas. Out of this USD 180 million USD 100 million has been granted as a soft loan at a concessionary interest rate of 0.75% with a 40 year repaying period.

USD 100 million has been allocated for infrastructure development of tsunami-affected areas and the Susahana Loan Scheme, which was designed for tsunami-affected SMEs by the Central Bank. Nearly Rs. 47 million being utilised from the funds.

The balance Rs. 80 million was provided under the non-project grant aid programme for reconstruction efforts, said Deputy Secretary to the Finance Ministry Sumith Abeysinghe.

The grant aid is presently being utilised for procurement of a wide range of goods and services in various sectors that would meet the needs of immediate humanitarian and relief measures as well as for medium-term rehabilitation needs, he said.

Under non-project grant the highest amount of funds being used for rehabilitation of fisheries sector and it is recorded as 27% , 21% is used for road development and 20% is for education. Funds also being utilised for water and sanitation, health, housing and electricity.

The Most of these programs under non-project grant are scheduled to be completed in next year.

The Embassy of Japan and the Ministry of Finance and Planning in Sri Lanka has formed a working group and Steering Committee to ensure a participatory and effective utilisation of the aid, Abeysinghe said.